Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial or social gain "to benefit another person, group or organization".[1] Volunteering is also renowned for skill development and is often intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life. Volunteering may have positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served.[2] It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster.

Etymology and history

The verb was first recorded in 1755. It was derived from the noun volunteer, in C.1600, "one who offers himself for military service," from the Middle Frenchvoluntaire.[3] In the non-military sense, the word was first recorded during the 1630s. The word volunteering has more recent usage--still predominantly military--coinciding with the phrase community service.[3][4] In a military context, a volunteer army is a military body whose soldiers chose to enter service, as opposed to having been conscripted. Such volunteers do not work "for free" and are given regular pay.

19th century

During this time, America experienced the Great Awakening. People became aware of the disadvantaged and realized the cause for movement against slavery. Younger people started helping the needy in their communities[]. In 1851, the first YMCA in the United States was started, followed seven years later by the first YWCA. During the American Civil War, women volunteered their time to sew supplies for the soldiers and the "Angel of the Battlefield" Clara Barton and a team of volunteers began providing aid to servicemen. Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and began mobilizing volunteers for disaster relief operations, including relief for victims of the Johnstown Flood in 1889.

20th and 21st centuries

The Salvation Army is one of the oldest and largest organizations working for disadvantaged people. Though it is a charity organization, it has organized a number of volunteering programs since its inception.[5] Prior to the 19th century, few formal charitable organizations existed to assist people in need.

The Great Depression saw one of the first large-scale, nationwide efforts to coordinate volunteering for a specific need. During World War II, thousands of volunteer offices supervised the volunteers who helped with the many needs of the military and the home front, including collecting supplies, entertaining soldiers on leave, and caring for the injured.[5]

After World War II, people shifted the focus of their altruistic passions to other areas, including helping the poor and volunteering overseas. A major development was the Peace Corps in the United States in 1960. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964, volunteer opportunities started to expand and continued into the next few decades. The process for finding volunteer work became more formalized, with more volunteer centers forming and new ways to find work appearing on the World Wide Web.[5]

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service (in 2012), about 64.5 million Americans, or 26.5 percent of the adult population, gave 7.9 billion hours of volunteer service worth $175 billion. This calculates at about 125-150 hours per year or 3 hours per week at a rate of $22 per hour. Volunteer hours in the UK are similar; the data for other countries is unavailable.

In 1960, after the so called revolutionary war in Cuba ended, Ernesto Che Guevara created the concept of volunteering work. It was created with the intention that workers across the country volunteer a few hour of work on their work centers.

Types

Volunteering as utilized by service learning programs

Many schools on all education levels offer service-learning programs, which allow students to serve the community through volunteering while earning educational credit.[6] According to Alexander Astin in the foreword to Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? by Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, Jr.,"...we promote more wide-spread adoption of service-learning in higher education because we see it as a powerful means of preparing students to become more caring and responsible parents and citizens and of helping colleges and universities to make good on their pledge to 'serve society.'"[7] When describing service learning, the Medical Education at Harvard says, "Service learning unites academic study and volunteer community service in mutually reinforcing ways. ...service learning is characterized by a relationship of partnership: the student learns from the service agency and from the community and, in return, gives energy, intelligence, commitment, time and skills to address human and community needs."[6] Volunteering in service learning seems to have the result of engaging both mind and heart, thus providing a more powerful learning experience; according to Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, it succeeds by the fact that it "...fosters student development by capturing student interest..."[7]:1-2,8 While not recognized by everyone as a legitimate approach, research on the efficacy of service learning has grown.[7]:xv-xvii Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles conducted a national study of American college students to ascertain the significance of service learning programs,[7]:xvi According to Eyler and Giles,"These surveys, conducted before and after a semester of community service, examine the impact of service-learning on students."[7]:xvi They describe their experience with students involved in service-learning in this way: "Students like service-learning. When we sit down with a group of students to discuss service-learning experiences, their enthusiasm is unmistakable. ...it is clear that [the students]believe that what they gain from service-learning differs qualitatively from what they often derive from more traditional instruction."[7]:1-2

Skills-based volunteering

Skills-based volunteering is leveraging the specialized skills and the talents of individuals to strengthen the infrastructure of nonprofits, helping them build and sustain their capacity to successfully achieve their missions.[8] This is in contrast to traditional volunteering, where specific training is not required.[] The average hour of traditional volunteering is valued by the Independent Sector at between $18-20 an hour.[9] Skills-based volunteering is valued at $40-500 an hour, depending on the market value of the time.[10][not in citation given]

Volunteering in developing countries

An increasingly popular form of volunteering among young people, particularly gap year students and graduates, is to travel to communities in the developing world to work on projects with local organisations. Activities include teaching English, working in orphanages, conservation, assisting non-governmental organizations and medical work. International volunteering often aims to give participants valuable skills and knowledge in addition to benefits to the host community and organization.[11]

Virtual volunteering

Also called e-volunteering or online volunteering, virtual volunteering is a volunteer who completes tasks, in whole or in part, offsite from the organization being assisted. They use the Internet and a home, school, telecenter or work computer, or other Internet-connected device, such as a PDA or smartphone. Virtual volunteering is also known as cyber service, telementoring, and teletutoring, as well as various other names. Virtual volunteering is similar to telecommuting, except that instead of online employees who are paid, these are online volunteers who are not paid.[12][13]

Micro-volunteering

Micro-volunteering is a task performed via an internet-connected device. An individual typically does this task in small, un-paid increments of time. Micro-volunteering is distinct from "virtual volunteering" in that it typically does not require the individual volunteer to go through an application process, screening process, or training period.[14][15]

Environmental volunteering

Environmental volunteering refers to the volunteers who contribute towards environmental management or conservation. Volunteers conduct a range of activities including environmental monitoring, ecological restoration such as re-vegetation and weed removal, protecting endangered animals, and educating others about the natural environment.[16]

During the 2012 hurricane Sandy emergency, Occupy Sandy volunteers, formed a laterally organized rapid-response team that provided much needed help during and after the storm, from food to shelter to reconstruction. It is an example of mutualism at work, pooling resources and assistance and leveraging social media.

Volunteering in schools

Resource poor schools around the world rely on government support or on efforts from volunteers and private donations, in order to run effectively. In some countries, whenever the economy is down, the need for volunteers and resources increases greatly.[19] There are many opportunities available in school systems for volunteers. Yet, there are not many requirements in order to volunteer in a school system. Whether one is a high school or TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) graduate or college student, most schools require just voluntary and selfless effort.[20]

Much like the benefits of any type of volunteering there are great rewards for the volunteer, student, and school. In addition to intangible rewards, volunteers can add relevant experience to their resumes. Volunteers who travel to assist may learn foreign culture and language.

Volunteering in schools can be an additional teaching guide for the students and help to fill the gap of local teachers. Cultural and language exchange during teaching and other school activities can be the most essential learning experience for both students and volunteers.[20]

Corporate volunteering

Benefacto, a volunteering brokerage, describe corporate volunteering as "Companies giving their employees an allowance of paid time off annually, which they use to volunteer at a charity of their choice."[21]

A majority of the companies at the Fortune 500 allow their employees to volunteer during work hours. These formalized Employee Volunteering Programs (EVPs), also called Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV), are regarded as a part of the companies' sustainability efforts and their social responsibility activities.[22] About 40% of Fortune 500 companies provide monetary donations, also known as volunteer grants, to nonprofits as a way to recognize employees who dedicate significant amounts of time to volunteering in the community.[23]

According to the information from VolunteerMatch, a service that provides Employee Volunteering Program solutions, the key drivers for companies that produce and manage EVPs are building brand awareness and affinity, strengthening trust and loyalty among consumers, enhancing corporate image and reputation, improving employee retention, increasing employee productivity and loyalty, and providing an effective vehicle to reach strategic goals.[24]

In April 2015, David Cameron pledged to give all UK workers employed by companies with more 250 staff mandatory three days' paid volunteering leave, which if implemented will generate an extra 360 million volunteering hours a year[25].

Community volunteer work

Community volunteering refers globally to those who work to improve their local community. This activity commonly occurs through not for profit organizations, local governments and churches; but also encompasses ad-hoc or informal groups such as recreational sports teams.[26]

Benefits of community volunteer work

There are many proven personal benefits of community volunteerism. Working together with a group of people who have different ethnicity, backgrounds, and views reduces stereotypes. Community volunteerism has also been proven to improve student's academic success.[]

According to Where's the Learning in Service Learning? by Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, immersing oneself into service learning and serving others has many positive effects both academic and personal. Not only does surrounding oneself with new people and learning how to work together as a group help one improve teamwork and relational skills, it reduces stereotypes, increases appreciation of other cultures, and works to allow young people to find others that they relate to.

Eyler and Giles noted that at the beginning and end of a college semester that included three hours of community service a week, students reported a much higher regard for cultural differences. At the end of the semester those who had participated in service-learning were noted as saying that the most important things that they had learned were not to judge others, and to appreciate every type of person because everyone shares some similar key characteristics.

Community volunteer work has proven to be a powerful predictor in students' academic lives and college experience as a whole. Studies have shown that students who participate in community service as a part of their college course of study have a much higher correlation of completing their degree (Astin, 1992;[27] Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991[28]). In addition, college students who participate in community volunteer projects as a part of their college experience report finding a much greater relevance in their academic studies after completing community volunteer projects.[29]

Social volunteering or welfare volunteering

In some European countries government organisations and non-government organisations provide auxiliary positions for a certain period in institutions like hospitals, schools, memorial sites and welfare institutions. The difference to other types of volunteering is that there are strict legal regulations, what organisation is allowed to engage volunteers and about the period a volunteer is allowed to work in a voluntary position. Due to that fact, the volunteer is getting a limited amount as a pocket money from the government. An organization having one of the biggest manpower in Europe is the German Federal volunteers service (Bundesfreiwilligendienst), that was founded in 2011, by having more than 35.000 federal volunteers in 2012.[30] A much older institution is the Voluntary social year (Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr) in Austria and Germany.[31][32]

Volunteer Days, Weeks & Years

Designated days, weeks and years observed by a country or as designated by the United Nations to encourage volunteering / community service

Political view

Modern societies share a common value of people helping each other; not only do volunteer acts assist others, but they also benefit the volunteering individual on a personal level.[33] Despite having similar objectives, tension can arise between volunteers and state-provided services. In order to curtail this tension, most countries develop policies and enact legislation to clarify the roles and relationships among governmental stakeholders and their voluntary counterparts; this regulation identifies and allocates the necessary legal, social, administrative, and financial support of each party. This is particularly necessary when some voluntary activities are seen as a challenge to the authority of the state(e.g., on 29 January 2001, President Bush cautioned that volunteer groups should supplement--not replace--government agencies' work).[34]

Volunteering that benefits the state but challenges paid counterparts angers labor unions that represent those who are paid for their volunteer work; this is particularly seen in combination departments, such as volunteer fire departments.

Difficulties in cross-national aid

Difficulties in the cross-national aid model of volunteering can arise when it is applied across national borders. The presence of volunteers who are sent from one state to another can be viewed as a breach of sovereignty and showing a lack of respect towards the national government of the proposed recipients. Thus, motivations are important when states negotiate offers to send aid and when these proposals are accepted, particularly if donors may postpone assistance or stop it altogether. Three types of conditionality have evolved:

Financial accountability: Transparency in funding management to ensure that what is done by the volunteers is properly targeted

Policy reform: Governmental request that developing countries adopt certain social, economic, or environmental policies; often, the most controversial relate to the privatization of services traditionally offered by the state

Some international volunteer organizations define their primary mission as being altruistic: to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world, (e.g. Voluntary Services Overseas has almost 2,000 skilled professionals working as volunteers to pass on their expertise to local people so that the volunteers' skills remain long after they return home). When these organizations work in partnership with governments, the results can be impressive. However, when other organizations or individual First World governments support the work of volunteer groups, there can be questions as to whether the organizations' or governments' real motives are poverty alleviation. Instead, a focus on creating wealth for some of the poor or developing policies intended to benefit the donor states is sometimes reported.[35] Many low-income countries' economies suffer from industrialization without prosperity and investment without growth. One reason for this is that development assistance guides many Third World governments to pursue development policies that have been wasteful, ill-conceived, or unproductive; some of these policies have been so destructive that the economies could not have been sustained without outside support.[36]

Indeed, some offers of aid have distorted the general spirit of volunteering, treating local voluntary action as contributions in kind, i.e., existing conditions requiring the modification of local people's behavior in order for them to earn the right to donors' charity. This can be seen as patronizing and offensive to the recipients because the aid expressly serves the policy aims of the donors rather than the needs of the recipients.

Moral resources, political capital and civil society

Based on a case study in China, Xu and Ngai (2011) revealed that the developing grassroots volunteerism can be an enclave among various organizations and may be able to work toward the development of civil society in the developing countries. The researchers developed a "Moral Resources and Political Capital" approach to examine the contributions of volunteerism in promoting the civil society. Moral resource means the available morals could be chosen by NGOs. Political capital means the capital that will improve or enhance the NGOs' status, possession or access in the existing political system.[37]

Moral Resource I: Inspired by Immanuel Kant's (1998 [1787]) argument of "What ought I to do," Moral Resource-I will encourage the NGOs' confidence and then have the courage to act and conquer difficulties by way of answering and confirming the question of "What ought I to do."[38]

Moral Resource II: given that Adorno (2000) recognizes that moral or immoral tropes are socially determined, Moral Resource-II refers to the morals that are well accepted by the given society.[39]

Thanks to the intellectual heritage of Blau and Duncan (1967), two types of political capital were identified:

Political Capital-I refers to the political capital mainly ascribed to the status that the NGO inherited throughout history (e.g., the CYL).

Political Capital-II refers to the Political Capital that the NGOs earned through their hard efforts.[40]

Obviously, "Moral resource-I itself contains the self-determination that gives participants confidence in the ethical beliefs they have chosen",[41] almost any organizations may have Moral Resource-I, while not all of them have the societal recognized Moral Resource-II. However, the voluntary service organizations predominantly occupy Moral Resource-II because a sense of moral superiority makes it possible that for parties with different values, goals and cultures to work together in promoting the promotion of volunteering. Thus the voluntary service organizations are likely to win the trust and support of the masses as well as the government more easily than will the organizations whose morals are not accepted by mainstream society. In other words, Moral Resource II helps the grassroots organizations with little Political Capital I to win Political Capital-II, which is a crucial factor for their survival and growth in developing countries such as China. Therefore, the voluntary service realm could be an enclave of the development of civil society in the developing nations.[42]

Health Benefits

Volunteering has the ability to improve the quality of life and health including longetivity of those who donate their time [43] and research has found that older adults will benefit the most from volunteering. Physical and mental ailments plaguing older adults can be healed through the simple act of helping others; however, one must be performing the good deed from a selfless nature. There are barriers that can prevent older adults from participating in volunteer work, such as socio-economic status, opinions held by others, and even current health issues. However, these barriers can be overcome so that if one would like to be involved in volunteer work they can do so. Volunteering improves not only the communities in which one serves, but also the life of the individual who is providing help to the community.

Mental Health Benefits

Volunteering is known not only to be related to happiness [44] but also to increase happiness [45][46]. Also, giving help was a more important predictor of better reported mental health than receiving help [47].

Statistics

In the United States, statistics on volunteering have historically been limited.[48] In 2013, the U.S. Current Population Survey (US) included a volunteering supplement which produced statistics on volunteering.[49]

Criticisms

In the 1960s, Ivan Illich offered an analysis of the role of American volunteers in Mexico in his speech entitled "To Hell With Good Intentions". His concerns, along with those of critics such as Paulo Freire and Edward Said, revolve around the notion of altruism as an extension of Christian missionaryideology. In addition, he mentions the sense of responsibility/obligation as a factor, which drives the concept of noblesse oblige--first developed by the French aristocracy as a moralduty derived from their wealth. Simply stated, these apprehensions propose the extension of power and authority over indigenous cultures around the world. Recent critiques of volunteering come from Westmier and Kahn (1996) and bell hooks (née Gloria Watkins) (2004). Also, Georgeou (2012) has critiqued the impact of neoliberalism on international aid volunteering.

The field of the medical tourism (referring to volunteers who travel overseas to deliver medical care) has recently attracted negative criticism when compared to the alternative notion of sustainable capacities, i.e., work done in the context of long-term, locally-run, and foreign-supported infrastructures. A preponderance of this criticism appears largely in scientific and peer-reviewed literature.[50][51][52] Recently, media outlets with more general readerships have published such criticisms as well.[53]